Sun's board gets leather jackets and talking cars

Sun Microsystems appears to have misunderstood analysts' call to "see some black ink."

The company today picked up two new board members with strong ties to the publishing industry. Tony Ridder, the former chairman and CEO of newspaper giant Knight Ridder, will serve on Sun's Leadership Development and Compensation committee. And Peter Currie, a CNET board member and former Netscape CFO, will serve on Sun's Audit committee.

Sun's board opened up when venture capital legend John Doerr left the company this month. Doerr had been one of Sun's strongest supporters, during booms and busts.

The server maker has looked healthier of late, although it has still failed to reach profitability.

Having the likes of Ridder and Currie on its board should help Sun if it decides to open a reporter surveillance office like HP. The directors would make it possible to avoid the pretexting mess by supplying phone logs directly to Sun.

With that in mind, we're surprised that Sun didn't pick up a more experienced snooper like Patricia Dunn now that she's a free agent. ®